Condition Report

Very rare first Italian editions. Two important works illustrating the "Chinese Rites controversy" with Jesuits and the Vatican like opponents. In the second work the evocative table depicts one of the rites that were the subject of the dispute, especially among the Jesuits, who supported the practice, and the Dominican and Franciscan missionaries who condemned them. In the second work, the evocative plate depicts one of the rites that were the subject of the dispute, especially among the Jesuits, because they supporting this practice, and the Dominicans, Augustinians and Franciscans missionaries who condemned them. For the first work, the date is taken from page 177, for the second, from page 16 of the Appendix, where the documents presented by the Jesuits to Pope Clement XI in 1707 are mentioned. Cordier, referring to the French edition of the "Stato presente della Chiesa cinese", note:" contient en particulier le texte fort important de la longue lettre adressée de Pekin à Mgr. de Tournon le 20 avril 1707 par le P. Antoine Thomas." In this Italian edition the important letter of the famous French Jesuit covers pages 114 to 177. The continuing controversy involved leading universities in Europe, was considered by eight popes and by the Kangxi emperor, and led to repeated intervention by the offices of the Holy See. By the end of the 17th century, many Dominicans and Franciscans had come to share the Jesuits' opinion, but Rome disagreed. In a decree of 1704, reinforced by a bull in 1715, Clement XI banned the rites. Benedict XIV in 1742 reaffirmed the prohibition and forbade further debate. No in Melzi and Barbier.